Only One Big Telecom CEO Refused To Cave To The NSA ... And He's Been In Jail For 4 Years

Joseph Nacchio, the CEO of
Qwest Communications International Inc. from 1997 to 2002,
arrives at the Denver Federal Courthouse with his wife, Anne, for
sentencing on 19 counts of illegal stock sales in Denver,
Colorado July 27, 2007.REUTERS/Rick
Wilking

Former Qwest CEO Joseph Nacchio is currently serving a six-year
sentence after being
convicted of insider trading in April 2007 for selling $52
million of stock in the spring of 2001 as the telecommunications
carrier appeared to be deteriorating.

During the trial
his defense team argued that Nacchio, 63, believed Qwest was
about to win secret government contracts that would keep it in
the black.

Nacchio alleged that the government stopped offering the
company lucrative contracts after Qwest refused to cooperate with
a National Security Agency surveillance program in February
2001.

That claim gains new relevance these days, amid
leaks by whistleblower Edward Snowden that allege widespread
domestic surveillance by the NSA.

Back in 2006 Leslie Cauley of USA Today, citing multiple people
with direct knowledge of the arrangement,
reported that shortly after the Sept. 11 terrorist
attacks America's three largest telecoms signed contracts
to provide the NSA with detailed call records from hundreds of
millions of people across the country.

Cauley noted that Qwest's refusal to participate "left the NSA
with a hole in its database" since the company served local phone
service to 14 million customers in 14 states.

"They told (Qwest) they didn't want to [run the proposal by the
FISA court] because FISA might not agree with them," one NSA
insider told USA Today.

There is a record of the NSA running afoul of FISA: In July the
FISA court ruled that the
NSA violated the Fourth Amendment's restriction against
unreasonable searches and seizures "on at least one occasion."

Furthermore, Nacchio felt that it was unclear who would have
access to Qwest customers' information and how that information
might be used. Sources told Cauley that the NSA said government
agencies including the FBI,
CIA, and DEA might have access to its
massive database.

Nacchio entered prison on
April 14, 2009 and is
scheduled for release on September 21, 2013
(Federal inmates are typically required to serve at
least 80 percent of a sentence, which would be 3.5 years in this
case.)